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Nekoosa superintendent: failed referendum leaves $2 million shortfall; district warns of staffing and program impacts
Summary
Superintendent Nathan Black said the district’s recent referendum failed, creating a projected $2 million funding gap for 2025–26; administrators warned of a possible reduction in staff, deferred maintenance and other cuts while the district pursues community listening and a potential April 2026 referendum. Business manager Lynn Knight said the district could exhaust reserves and detailed options including using Fund 46, increased short-term borrowing, or pursuing attrition-based staffing reductions.
Superintendent Nathan Black told the board that the district’s recent referendum did not pass and that the district must now close a roughly $2,000,000 gap in next year’s budget.
"We have failed a referendum," Superintendent Nathan Black said. "That is $2,000,000 in funding that we are now having to make up for in the course of the next school year." He said the district will hold listening sessions and increase community outreach to explain changes and regain voter confidence, and identified student behavior and academic performance as areas the district plans to address in outreach.
Business manager Lynn Knight gave the board a financial briefing, saying the loss of referendum revenue is driving a projected general-fund deficit of roughly $3.2 million for 2025–26. Knight cautioned that using fund balance to cover ongoing costs is not recommended: she projected a June 30, 2026 fund balance of about $2,900,000 if reserves are used to cover shortfalls and warned that dipping into reserves could trigger negative credit reviews from rating agencies and harm future borrowing costs.
Knight outlined interim measures the district is considering: pursuing attrition rather than immediate layoffs where possible, deferring capital projects and technology purchases, increasing short-term borrowing to manage cash flow, and revising the capital-improvement plan to draw on Fund 46 (set aside for turf/track replacements). "If we do nothing with 2025–26, the budget is going to be in a deficit of $3,200,000," Knight said.
Knight also described key revenue assumptions: the district budget uses a pupil FTE of 953 for 2024–25 and projects state aid and other categorical revenues to be uncertain until official estimates arrive on July 1. She told the board the district cannot place another referendum on the November ballot because state rules require a statewide election; the earliest practical date for a new referendum would be April 2026.
The board did not vote on specific cuts at the meeting; members asked questions about the scale and timing of reductions and were told the district will pursue a moving set of budget updates through October 2025 and present revised proposals and potential staffing adjustments in coming meetings.
Next steps: the administration will schedule community listening sessions and return with more precise projections and any proposed budget adjustments for board consideration.
